New Public Management


Book Description

This text examines the dynamics of comprehensive civil service reform in Norway, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia. Since 1985, new public management (NPM) has evolved into an administrative orthodoxy. This book challenges the globalization thesis, which maintains that NPM is spreading rapidly around the world and generating convergence between civil service systems. The text argues that administrative reforms are transformed by a complex mixture of environmental pressure, policy features, and historical and institutional contexts, which would imply divergence and organizational variance. This book looks at three forms of tranformation of NPM. The first looks at the reform process, ideas, and content. The second looks at the effects of NPM reforms on political-administrative control, organized interests, policy capacity, and governmental culture. The third focuses on the implications of NPM for reform theory and democratic ideas.




Digital Era Governance


Book Description

Government information systems are big business (costing over 1 per cent of GDP a year). They are critical to all aspects of public policy and governmental operations. Governments spend billions on them - for instance, the UK alone commits £14 billion a year to public sector IT operations. Yet governments do not generally develop or run their own systems, instead relying on private sector computer services providers to run large, long-run contracts to provide IT. Some of the biggest companies in the world (IBM, EDS, Lockheed Martin, etc) have made this a core market. The book shows how governments in some countries (the USA, Canada and Netherlands) have maintained much more effective policies than others (in the UK, Japan and Australia). It shows how public managers need to retain and develop their own IT expertise and to carefully maintain well-contested markets if they are to deliver value for money in their dealings with the very powerful global IT industry. This book describes how a critical aspect of the modern state is managed, or in some cases mismanaged. It will be vital reading for public managers, IT professionals, and business executives alike, as well as for students of modern government, business, and information studies.




Saqiyuq


Book Description

Saqiyuq is the name the Inuit give to a strong wind that suddenly shifts direction; Saqiyuq: Stories from the Lives of Three Inuit Women is a vivid portrait of the changing nature of life in the Arctic during the twentieth century. Through their life stories a grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter take us on a remarkable journey in which the cycles of life -- childhood, adolescence, marriage, birthing and child rearing - are presented against the contrasting experiences of three successive generations. Their memories and reflections give us poignant insight into the history of the people of the new territory of Nunavut. Apphia Awa, who was born in 1931, experienced the traditional life on the land while Rhoda Katsak, Apphia's daughter, was part of the transitional generation who were sent to government schools. In contrast to both, Sandra Katsak, Rhoda's daughter, has grown up in the settlement of Pond Inlet among the conveniences and tensions of contemporary northern communities - video games and coffee shops but also drugs and alcohol. During the last years of Apphia's life Rhoda and Sandra began working to reconnect to their traditional culture and learn the art of making traditional skin clothing. Through the storytelling in Saqiyuq, Apphia, Rhoda, and Sandra explore the transformations that have taken place in the lives of the Inuit and chart the struggle of the Inuit to reclaim their traditional practices and integrate them into their lives. Nancy Wachowich became friends with Rhoda Katsak and her family during the early 1990s and was able to record their stories before Apphia's death in 1996. Saqiyuq: Stories from the Lives of Three Inuit Women will appeal to everyone interested in the Inuit, the North, family bonds, and a good story.




The New Public Service


Book Description

This widely praised work provides a framework for the many voices calling for the reaffirmation of democratic values, citizenship, and service in the public interest. The expanded edition includes an all-new chapter that addresses the practical issues of applying these ideals in actual, real-life situations. "The New Public Service, Expanded Edition" is organized around a set of seven core principles: serve citizens, not customers; seek the public interest; value citizenship and public service above entrepreneurship; think strategically, act democratically; recognize that accountability isn't simple; serve, rather than steer; and value people, not just productivity. The book asks us to think carefully and critically about what public service is, why it is important, and what values ought to guide what we do and how we do it. It celebrates what is distinctive, important and meaningful about public service and considers how we might better live up to those ideals and values. All students and serious practitioners in public administration and public policy should read this book. While debates about public policy issues will surely continue, this compact, clearly written volume provides an important framework for public service based on and fully integrated with citizen discourse and the public interest.




Hunters, Predators and Prey


Book Description

Inuit hunting traditions are rich in perceptions, practices and stories relating to animals and human beings. The authors examine key figures such as the raven, an animal that has a central place in Inuit culture as a creator and a trickster, and qupirruit, a category consisting of insects and other small life forms. After these non-social and inedible animals, they discuss the dog, the companion of the hunter, and the fellow hunter, the bear, considered to resemble a human being. A discussion of the renewal of whale hunting accompanies the chapters about animals considered ‘prey par excellence’: the caribou, the seals and the whale, symbol of the whole. By giving precedence to Inuit categories such as ‘inua’ (owner) and ‘tarniq’ (shade) over European concepts such as ‘spirit ‘and ‘soul’, the book compares and contrasts human beings and animals to provide a better understanding of human-animal relationships in a hunting society.




Arctic Justice


Book Description

Although there was no Canadian law enforcement in the Eastern High Arctic when a crazed white fur trader was killed by an Inuk, authorities put Nuqallaq and two other Baffin Island Inuit on trial. The Canadian government saw Robert Janes's death as murder; the Inuit saw it as removing a threat from their society according to custom. Nuqallaq was sentenced to ten years hard labour in Stony Mountain Penitentiary where he contracted tuberculosis. He died shortly after being returned to Pond Inlet.Shelagh Grant's award-winning Arctic Justice is a masterly reconstruction of these tragic events at the intersection of Inuit and Canadian justice. Combining original Inuit oral testimony with archival history, Grant sheds light on the conflicting values and perceptions of two disparate cultures. She shows how the Canadian government's decision was determined by fear and political concerns for establishing sovereignty over the Arctic.Arctic Justice is also a social history of North Baffin Island in the twentieth century with vivid portraits of Janes, Captain J.E. Bernier of the CGS Arctic, investigating RCMP officer A. H. Joy, and the remarkable Nuqallaq, his wife Ataguttiaq, and the Inuit of North Baffin Island.




Humanizing Security in the Arctic


Book Description

Climatic conditions, economic development strategies, health and education concerns, social relationships, and shifting political agendas all contribute to a sense of ongoing change in Arctic societies. This volume presents twenty-two chapters that address various forms and issues of (in)security in the Arctic. The work shows that the outcomes of resource scarcity or abundance are equally important to consider, that disparities in income as much as opportunities deserve our attention, and that the movement of populations to and from the Arctic is meaningful for those who leave as well as for those who stay.







The People of the Twilight


Book Description

Description of the author's experiences among the Eskimos of the Coronation Gulf region, Canada.